The operational level of war is the level of war at which campaigns and major operations are planned, conducted, and sustained to achieve strategic objectives within theaters or other operational areas. The strategic level is the level of war at which a nation, individually or as a group of nations, determines national or multinational strategic security objectives and guidance, then develops and uses national resources to achieve those objectives. Joint Publication 3-0, Joint Operations, defines the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of war. This article will introduce the institutional level of war with a corresponding institutional art (to match the operational art) as a parallel level or column of war. In limiting the discussion of the levels of war to the tactical, operational, and strategic level, what occurs within military institutions that develop and deploy those units to the battlefield is completely lost. Each of these levels of war focuses on the current and immediate future of war and determines success in war based on actions on the battlefield. Other proposed levels include the grand strategic lying above the strategic, and the technical level of war below the tactical.
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There have been attempts to create other levels such as the theater strategic between the operational and strategic. At the lowest rung is the tactical level, followed by the operational level, and culminating with the strategic level of war on top. The United States military recognizes three distinct levels of war.